Surge In Solar Power Investments In 2017: UN Report

05/09/2018

Investments in solar power generation attracted the highest investments globally in 2017 according to the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2018. The investments overshot those made in coal, natural gas, nuclear and wind energy. The report was prepared jointly by UN Environment, the Frankfurt School’s UNEP Collaborating Center, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

One of the primary reasons for this is that it is relatively less costly to install and maintain compared to some of the other energy sources for power generation.

“The extraordinary surge in solar investment shows how the global energy map is changing and, more importantly, what the economic benefits are of such a shift,” says Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment. “Investments in renewables bring more people into the economy, they deliver more jobs, better quality jobs and better paid jobs. Clean energy also means less pollution, which means healthier, happier development.”

Last year, investments were made in the installation of solar power able to generated over 98 gigawatts throughout the world. that number is more than new installations for any other sources of power. transcription of that volume of installation results in a total investment of $160.8 billion which is far higher than investments in any other energy form. that investment amount is 18% more than those done a year earlier.

And while over $279.8 billion was invested in all form of renewable energy sources combined, just about $103 billion was in vested in new coal and natural gas facilities in 2017.

The lion’s share of investments done in solar energy throughout the globe in 2017 belongs to China. The country put together 53 gigawatts of solar power in total last year with a total investment in this energy source at $86.5 billion, which is 58%. Increase over the year before. There was an increase of 147% in investments in solar power in Australia compared to the year earlier with total investment of $8.5 billion. on the other hand, there was 800% increase in investments in solar in Mexico in 2017 compared to the year earlier at $6 billion.

In total, global investments in renewable energy had touched almost $3 trillion.

“The world added more solar capacity than coal, gas, and nuclear plants combined,” says Nils Stieglitz, president of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. “This shows where we are heading, although the fact that renewables altogether are still far from providing the majority of electricity means that we still have a long way to go.”

However, only 12% of the total energy sources globally is accounted for by renewables. And interestingly, there had been a fall in investment sin solar energy in 2017 in some of the larger producers of the renewable. There was 6% reduction in investments in solar in the US at $40.5 billion while there was reduction of 36% in investments in solar in Europe art $40.9 billion where the highest drop was noted in the UK (65%) at $7.6 billion. Germany noted a 35% drop in investments in Solar in 2017 at $10.4 billion.